The “Media Literacy Cooperation Protocol” between the Ministry of National Education and the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) was signed by Deputy Minister Petek Aşkar and RTÜK President Ebubekir Şahin with the participation of Minister Mahmut Özer.
In his speech at the ceremony, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer emphasized the importance of the Media Literacy Cooperation Protocol and said, “To prepare our young people for the future, to be with them, to raise them not only in connection with their academic skills, but also with their non-cognitive skills, but also by raising awareness about the dangers that await them. We mobilize all our resources. Here, while improving their academic skills, we are trying to increase their communication and interaction with culture, art and sports, and provide all kinds of support for them to progress towards fullness.” said.
Emphasizing that the Ministry of National Education, with its approximately 19 million students and 1.2 million teachers, Turkey is the universe, not the sample, Özer said, “21. We are also aware that we are facing new threats in the XNUMXst century. Although the twenty-first century is assumed and claimed to be the century of freedom, we are actually facing a century in which dependencies have increased too much. We are faced with very challenging problems. If you notice, while mathematics, mother tongue and science literacy are widely used in the conventional education literature, new literacy has begun to be added to them. Digital and media literacy... Because the technologies that come into our lives with each passing day, while making our lives easier, they also start to produce different behavioral skates. One of the most challenging issues is internet addiction in general and media literacy in particular.” used the phrases.
Pointing out that the internet has transformed our lives by shaping it, Özer continued his speech as follows: “Education has perhaps been one of the sectors that it affected the most. In fact, such assertive words were used that we now have to leave conventional education. We can access all kinds of information with a click of a button. I wish this was free and inexpensive. We know that Western civilization does not give anything for free. Here, too, access to that information has a cost. That cost reveals itself as a dependency. Especially as technology gets smarter, that is, as deep learning mechanisms called artificial intelligence 'deeplerning' enter the system, the concept of addiction or addiction behavior skating, unwanted technology use, is not an undesirable by-product, as I have said before. No, a deliberately desired and intended behavior is patented. We need to be aware of this. When you look at the Western literature, you will see that the subject has been widely discussed. But, unfortunately, I would like to say that I regret to see that we do not have very in-depth studies.”
A call to all stakeholders of education to combat digital addiction
Pointing out that education stakeholders, especially academia, and people who have a hand in youth, should look at this issue much more differently than general rhetoric, Özer said, “Because we have our youth who are facing a threat. The American Psychiatric Association recognized behavioral disorders as a type of addiction for the first time in 2013. Internet addiction and especially social media addiction started to be discussed in this context. Now, in this challenging landscape, we must first accept the following. We cannot survive by staying away from digital platforms and ignoring them. In other words, we need to include digital platforms and all the opportunities it offers into our education system.” used the phrases.
Stating that one of the most rapidly applied methods in the Kovid-19 epidemic is digital platforms that eliminate distances, Özer noted that it is the biggest responsibility to raise young and early children with the awareness of what they are exposed to in this regard.
Özer continued as follows: “Because new media, social media and other platforms demand constant connection to them. In other words, it demands and wants you to be online all the time. If you pay attention, there is no such thing as leaving the screen to the technological transformations in the media. These are not things that happen by accident. Consciously produced by all disciplines of science, from the psychologist to the sociologist. Because it is not possible to sustain and manage something that people do not have the ability to do. Maybe for the first time in human history, when you look at the number of companies that manage these digital platforms, we are going through a period in human history where such a minority dominates the majority of over 2 billion, digital media literate and internet access, not only their time but also their preferences and decision mechanisms. ”
Pointing out that manipulations are made over the internet and social media in today's world, Minister Özer said, “All fights, all wars, all PR work is done through social media. We are witnessing a period in which both a useful instrument and disinformation have become very common in our daily lives. Because media platforms constantly bombard us with information because they want to continue our lives in connection with them. Many different concepts such as 'we should binge', which are frequently mentioned, have now started to enter our literature. In fact, it also changes the way our young people skate in behavior. Only the choice does not affect the decision mechanisms. Individuals are starting to become more and more lonely and to establish the field of pleasure and legitimacy in the virtual environment.” made its assessment.
Pointing out that the dynamics of exclusion, non-exclusion reflex, acceptance and accreditation are used very actively especially on social media platforms, Minister Özer continued his speech as follows: “First, individuals are isolated, then pleasure is created in a virtual environment, human pleasure mechanisms and then their decisions and behaviors. A profile of people whose daily life rituals are changing is beginning to emerge. The value of patience is forgotten. Their ability to agree with the other's troubles is getting weaker. In fact, we are perhaps one of the societies that have the right to say the most about this issue. Because it is obvious that the values, the human values in the construction of this geography of the heart, are actually eroded by this digital addiction and the conflict about raising a different individual is revealed, but for this, we need to think a lot, think a lot and take a lot of precautions.”
With media literacy, young people will be very resilient to future swings and challenges
Noting that new definitions such as 'attention economy' and 'business model' have been made regarding addiction, especially social media platforms, Minister Özer said, “Normally, you know the product you buy in a free market economy. You get products in other types of addictions as well. The product affects something on you. But it is clear that a product has been purchased in a concrete way. On the Internet, there is an economy of attention. So you are not actually a consumer. You are the product itself. Because in the services provided for free, your preferences, behavioral patterns and information are sold to advertisers and different platforms constantly contact you and try to guide you. In other words, man has come to such a stage that he has ceased to be a consumer and has become a product. Here, we need to discuss these issues in a very comprehensive way, not only in terms of education, but also in terms of economy, sociology and psychology, because it is not a topic that we discuss daily in certain weeks, but one of the issues that should be on our agenda because it is one of the main channels in which life itself flows. So, raising our young people in a way that will increase their awareness on these issues and at the same time with the awareness of what they are faced with, what the theory of knowledge is, the accuracy of a news, especially in media literacy, and what the relationship with truth is, will make our young people much more resistant to future swings and challenges. ” made its assessment.
Özer thanked President Ebubekir Şahin for his cooperation with RTÜK and said, “I do not see this cooperation as a simple cooperation. I find it very valuable in terms of being a generation that we will entrust the future of our country, that will build the strong Turkey of the future, that will make our young people more resilient, that will come from outside and inside, that will make them much more resistant to attacks on social media, and that have increased their awareness.”
A youth who walks on his way equipped with his culture, civilization and human values
Expressing that there is a very comprehensive cooperation, implicitly, not only for the elective courses in the 7th and 8th grades, but also for other courses, from media literacy updates to informing, Özer referred to the words of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 'I like the smart, agile and at the same time moral athlete'. Özer continued his speech as follows: “A youth who has strong academic skills, strong body, keeps himself fit but has morals… In other words, a youth who walks on his path equipped with culture, civilization and human values. Here, as the Ministry of National Education, we set out with all our might to raise intelligent, agile and moral individuals. We work with our friends.”
With the protocol in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and RTÜK, seminars, conferences, congresses, symposiums, conversations, panels, workshops, training, competitions aimed at preventing media literacy, cyber security and technology addiction for students / trainees, teachers, administrators and parents who receive education in institutions affiliated to the Ministry. It is aimed to carry out studies such as organizing events and activities, developing curriculum and teaching materials, and preparing public service announcements.
Within the scope of the protocol, in order to improve media literacy awareness in all education levels, material will be prepared for the acquisitions that can be associated with the subject of media literacy in the curricula of other courses. The media literacy course curriculum, which is taught as an elective course in secondary school 7th and 8th grades, will be updated and teaching materials will be prepared accordingly.
Organizing activities such as preparing seminars, conferences, congresses, symposiums, conversations, panels, workshops and public service announcements with the protocol; Preparing digital materials for publication in EBA and ÖBA; realization of training of trainers; It is planned to carry out trainings for students/trainees, teachers, administrators, families, book writing commissions and teaching materials development commissions.
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